Chris Antony's 'Guild Master' - a cutthroat industry
Chris Antony
Gone are the heady days when an ambitious young fighter, with a short sword and an average charisma roll, could gather a party of loyal adventurers and swan off to a nearby cave entrance for riches and glory.
Nowadays, there is competition. To put a band together, one can’t just buy a round of drinks at the tavern like one used to, one needs to buy, outbid, persuade and cajole adventurers into joining their guild in competition with other masters, and get in quickly before the best are gone and you're left with an uppity cleric.
Chris Antony has advanced the notion set out in the awesome Lords Of Waterdeep that those adventurers came from somewhere, and that it might be more fun to be the puppet master rather than the puppet.Beyond that, Guild Master makes the point that such a lucrative venture as the to send foolish others off to do your heavy lifting will have more than one master vying for the employment of limited amounts of talented adventurers.
Joined by his brother, Chris and Nathan Antony have created an adventurers’ job market. Like Seek, but where people actually get a job.
Hidden action selection from behind a high stone wall with a house flag to say you’re done add to the theme that you are building up a business your granddaddy would be proud of. Simultaneous reveal offers the dynamic of second-guessing your opponents’ moves and the tension of seeing if your plans don’t get thwarted by someone else.
Guild Master is a longer game – about two-and-a-half hours per game for newcomers at the Games Lab Incubator day, likely to quicken with player experience, yet players report not only did the time pass quickly, but players with an excited and exhausted smile on their face expressed a desire to want to play again almost immediately. I have not had that since a very involved four-hour session of Eclipse!
One playtester reported that Guild Master was "Like Lords Of Waterdeep, but heaps better, bro!
"High praise indeed. There is something absorbing in Guild Master. Perhaps the ongoing satisfaction of seeing your empire grow, the intrigue, and the simultaneous action that keeps everyone engaged almost constantly. “Yeah that's what sold me on the game originally,” said Nathan, “Chris showed me and my wife an early prototype and I was like ‘OMG – no downtime!’.”
A game is played in twelve turns representing twelve months, with several permanently-available actions chosen each turn including recruiting, attempting tasks, and building up your infrastructure. The simultaneous choice up-front each round, with that-adventurer-you-really-wanted being snapped up before you got a chance to grab him, or that task being completed before your adventurers got out of bed means that much of the same's charm is in second-guessing your opponents' choices and adjusting your play accordingly, leaving a lot of player interaction and intrigue.Keep an eye out for the Antony brothers, save yourself a seat at their game table and look out for Guild Masters in the near future.